Monday, 13 October 2014

Rocky Mountain National Park - Twin sisters Hike

The Twin Sisters hike is a moderate climb up some 800m (2,600ft) - Enter the Rocky Mountain National Park and head for Lily Lake. There is a road opposite called Serenity Lane - take that and you can park at the trail-head - please see my GPS details on Strava . For this hike I have also made a video which is on YouTube..

Start by head up the road towards the forest - as the road takes a right, turn into the forest - look carefully for the trail-head sign. soon you will be engulfed in tall fir trees on all sides blocking the views but letting in the sunlight - you will zig-zag up here twice before the path turns to the right and starts taking you up and round the mountain.

The path begins to get a bit rocky at this point and my advice is to take trekking poles with you. Every now and then the trees open out to the right giving you some beautiful views of the park.

On my trip there was a landslip which had happened a year or so ago. this meant the trail had a divert and this is covered on my GPS route on Strava and I'll drop an image of that for you as well right here..

On the image you can clearly see where I went wrong and had to retrace my steps - the diversion is AFTER you cross the landslip. Here's a view of the landslip as you cross it..

It's pretty humbling when you are crossing it to think of the devastation caused. There would be no chance of survival if it happened when you are crossing.. Quite scary - and this brings home the dangers of trekking in high mountains. When you find the trail you will work your way through a number of zig-zags before you start to break through the treeline.

When you look up at this point you will see many boulders and the summit in the distance. Here the path rises fairly quickly but does not need any scrambling. Before long you will next find the radio mast and make your way up between the two peaks which make up the mountain top. From here the views are quite amazing but to get a better view you will need to climb one of the peaks. This does involve a bit of scrambling but nothing serious - very light and easy going.

It was very very windy at the top but I managed to reel off a few photos.. Above is a view looking back the way I had came, west towards Longs Peak (the highest point in the Park). At the summit you are at altitude - 11,428 feet, so it is advisable to take plenty of water and not hang around. The other of the twins is where the radio hut and mast are.. an easy climb. When you are done taking selfies make your way back down the same direction.